Hotel Room Fat Loss Workout

Do you have to travel a lot and find it difficult to fit in quality workouts?  Do you struggle knowing what you should and should not eat while dining out?  Here are some quick tips I share with my clients including hotel room workouts and diet tips while traveling.

by Ed Scow, NSCA-CPT (aka The Fit Dad) - Fitness and Nutrition Expert to the true superheroes - busy Moms and Dads! and Author of Fat Loss To Go

I have quite a few clients who travel…a lot.

Sometimes they’re travelling all over the country and other times they’re just traveling within the state.

Regardless of where they travel, they end up staying in hotels.  Some of those hotels have gyms and some do not.

Some have nice gyms with lots of equipment and others have “gyms” that include a creaky old treadmill, a few light dumbbells and an old multi-station gym.   All of which looks like it was picked up at a garage sale for 50 bucks.

Even if these clients were staying at a Four Seasons they more than likely were not sticking to the fat loss programs I designed for them.   Not only that, but the nutrition plan that they had been working so hard on while at home was tossed out the window as soon as they hit the airport.

So I had to do something. I had to figure out a workout program for these clients that was to be done in their hotel room, either first thing in the morning before they showered or at night before they hit the pillow.   Plus I had to give them some practical nutrition advice so that they would stick to the healthy habits that they had worked so hard on through their time with me.

So here’s what I came up with and I’ll give you a sample workout at the end.

1.        The hotel room fat loss workouts I designed used nothing but bodyweight exercises and resistance tubing.   The resistance tubing is fantastic because it’s small enough that it can fit in the outside compartment of a suitcase and weighs next to nothing.

2.        Pack healthy snacks before you leave the house for the airport.   These snacks can include the following (but not limited to):

a.        Almonds and other healthy nuts, granola bars (not overly processed junk “granola bars”), protein bars, beef jerkey, green tea packets to drink in the morning instead of coffee, and raisins.   All of these things are small, won’t get damaged like fruit will and are easy to travel with.

b.       I also told them to grab a bunch of fruit from the hotel restaurant as soon as they checked in and take it to their room.   Convenience is huge while traveling and if you have the fruit sitting in your room, you’re more likely to actually eat it.

3.        Be sure to stick to healthier menu items at restaurants.   Never get an appetizer…unless it’s your main dish.   Eating an appetizer before your entrée is ridiculous.   Those things are calorie monsters

a.        Don’t order alcohol before your entrée.   You’re more likely to eat more when drinking alcohol, plus it adds tons of empty calories to your waist line.   Drink water, unsweetened tea, or some other calorie-free drink (not diet soda).

b.       Ask for a half-order, or for half of your order to be placed in a take-home bag before you get your plate.   Scratch the take-home bag if you order something messy, or smelly, obviously.

c.        Ask for any dressings or sauces on the side and NEVER pour the whole thing on your plate when you receive your entrée.

d.         Be wary of any food that’s high in sodium.   You’re more likely to retain fluids while traveling and high sodium foods will only make it worse.

e.       Skip the chocolate cheesecake…duh.

As far as the hotel room workouts are concerned, here’s a sample workout I just designed for a client who’s traveling to Arizona this weekend.

Perform the following exercises in a circuit fashion, moving from 1 exercise to the next with no rest until all exercises are completed once.   Then rest for 30-45 seconds and repeat 3 or 4 more times.

1.        Push-up – 10 reps

2.        Bodyweight Squat – 15 reps

3.        Mountain Climbers – 30 seconds

4.        Forward Lunge – 15 each leg

5.        Burpees – 8 reps

6.        Jump Squat – 8 reps

That hotel room fat loss workout will leave you sweating and will burn lots of calories, which will keep you on track with your fat loss and ever closer to your end goal. Plus if you do it first thing in the morning you’ll keep your metabolism revved up for the remainder of the day which means you’ll burn more fat throughout the day and you’ll be more likely to stay awake for your business meetings.